ord
might have been seen leaving the mill-yard, with something he carried in
a bag, taking long draws at his pipe, and still with a smile upon his
face. He was making his way alone to the open fields, and across these to
where there was shelter under a hedge. Having reached his point, he
stooped to the ground; and then there sped from him, as he rose, a hare,
unharmed in wind and limb.

He looked long after it, to make sure. Then he rubbed his chin with his
pipe in his hand, and remarked aloud, "Run to a standstill, and never
harmed. Well, I'm...!" And once again that day he checked himself from
using a bad, if sometimes almost pardonable, word.

III

The general company naturally viewed Murphy's performance from many
standpoints. Among his contemporaries his reputation went up with a
bound, though there was not wanting a leaven of jealous ones even amidst
those who crowded most closely round him. Among those a little older than
himself, the best-natured commended him outspokenly and in honest
generosity of heart. Others, with more mundane outlook, judged his
achievement reflected lustre on the kennel, and therefore--this with a
sniff and the chuck of the chin--also on themselves. A few more vowed, in
true sporting spirit, that they would do their level best to go one
better if such a chance as that should come their way. To these last, the
puzzle was why, with such results, the whole of those present had not
tasted blood; and among themselves they voted the action of the Over-Lord
incomprehensible, certainly womanly, very certainly misjudged. If the
young dog had gone up therefore in their estimation, the Man had
correspondingly gone down.

As for the older generation, some spoke patronisingly, as if they wished
to convey that the deed was nothing more than they could easily have
achieved, and in fact ended by talking so much that they persuaded
themselves, to their own satisfaction, that they were in the habit in
their younger days of doing things of the kind not less infrequently than
once a week. The moralists wagged their heads as the fountain of all
truths, and asserted that such success was a very bad thing for the
young. The swaggerers, who held somewhat aloof, but who had never done
anything in their lives, put on more side than usual and endeavoured to
carry matters off that way, oblivious, as ever, of the laughter round the
corner. Lastly, there was that other cl